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Library/Paris Manuscript G/46

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Paris Manuscript G — 46

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Bibliothèque de l'Institut de France, Paris

A sanguigna.

De l'ombre delli alberi1.

Stando il sole all'oriente li alberi occidentali all'occhio si dimostrano di pochissimo rilievo e quasi d'insensibile dimostrazione, per[ché] l'aria che in fra l'occhio e dette piante s'interpone, è molto fosca per la settima di questo, e son privati d'ombra; e benché l'ombra sia in ciascuna division di ramificazione, egli accade che le similitudine dell'ombra e lume, che vengano all'occhio, son confuse e miste insieme, e per la lor piccola figura non si possan complendere2.

E li lumi principali son nelli mezzi delle piante, e le ombre in verso li stremi, e le lor separazioni son divise da l'o[m]bre delli intervalli d'esse piante, quanto le selve sono spesse d'alberi, e nelli rari li termini poco si vedano.

In red chalk.

On the shadows of trees. With the sun in the east, the western trees show themselves to the eye with very little relief and an almost imperceptible appearance, because the air interposed between the eye and the said plants is very murky — by the seventh [proposition] of this [book] — and they are deprived of shadow. And although shadow lies in each division of the branching, it happens that the images of shadow and light that reach the eye are confused and mixed together, and because of their small size they cannot be made out.

And the principal lights are in the middles of the plants, and the shadows toward the edges; and their separations are divided by the shadows of the intervals between these plants, in proportion as the woods are thick with trees; and in the sparse ones the boundaries are little seen.

The Shadows of Trees in Distant Woods

Loss of relief in murky air; lights at the centre, shadows at the edges

Painting & Perspective Optics & Light Landscape Botany

Here Leonardo describes how western trees, seen through the murky interposed air of morning, lose almost all relief and appear nearly featureless, their small patches of light and shadow confused and merged. He explains that the chief lights fall at the centres of the foliage masses and the shadows toward their edges. The boundaries between trees are marked by the shadowed gaps between them, sharp where the woods are dense and barely visible where they are sparse. The page is text only, in mirror script.

On this page

Distant western trees lose relief in murky air

Trees to the west appear with very little relief and almost imperceptible form, because the murky air interposed between eye and tree deprives them of shadow. Though shadow lies in every division of the branches, the small images of light and shadow reaching the eye are confused and merged, and cannot be made out.

Lights at the centre, shadows at the edges of foliage

The principal lights fall in the middles of the foliage masses and the shadows toward their edges. The trees are separated by the shadowed intervals between them, distinct where the woods are dense and barely visible where they are sparse.

Reader's Edition — described with AI from the e-Leo transcription.